Bond St. was the aroma of bread and fermenting yeast from the bakery across the alley. The rain was intermittent, a barely perceptible mist that would make you seriously debate the importance of using your windshield wipers, at first. Then, it poured. It was chilly, but not too chilly—the way that only the end of September can feel after a finicky, global warming summer. The following is what happened on the night of the 26th, at the bar called Fletchers.

The first thing that you’d have seen, traversing the stairs up to the three-room venue, was glowsticks. If the Baha Men had been on hand that Friday night, you’d have actually heard whispers, rhyming to the likes of “Who let the glowsticks out?” Fortunately for the generously rounded hundred-or-so people trickling from room to room and back again, there was nobody on hand to joke about the fluke abundance of these glowing wands of magic. Instead, Count Me In took the stage, and the show got started.

Comparing themselves to All Time Low and Blink-182 with their poppy-punky mixture, the band claims to sound like “sex coming through the faders.” Throw a bit of Yellowcard in there, and you have lead boy Matt’s slightly nasal crooning voice. The instrumentals fit in nicely with the pop-punk genre, not falling under par, but not contributing anything that hasn’t already been seen. Drew on lead guitar, Jeff on the bass (who is also contributor of “sick dance moves”), and Allen on drums complete the foursome.

Spark To Inferno was the next band to capture the eyes of the audience. Although they call themselves a screamo/ experimental indie, they lack just enough “core” to knock their Rage-o-Meter down into the alt-rock genre. Hailing from Jessup, Lead-Singer-slash-Guitarist Matt (the second leading Matt of the evening) sounds hauntingly like Alien Ant Farm’s Dryden Mitchell, and that isn’t a bad thing. With an impressive track record, and a very decent, if not somewhat mainstream sound, these guys are definitely talented. In a recent interview with EOTU Tv, Matt stated that “I think we all agree that we want to be a band that always impresses people a lot more live than on a CD,” and the other boys—Chris on second guitar, Ken on bass, and Nelson on drums—all echoed “Come to the shows! They will be better than the CD… that is almost a promise. Almost.” From the way that the glowsticks were waving, one would think that they are right.

When The Speaks took the stage, though, that was when the show really got started. Hailing from the DC/NOVA corner, their song “High” has earned them two Wammie nominations, the Silver medal in the 23rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Song Writing contest, and the title “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” by local station Z-104. Most recently, they have a long list of #1’s… Three 1st place standings at regionally renowned Battle of the Bands events, and a Number One single in the UK for 8 weeks strait. Frontman Raf Toledo did a phenomenal job of pumping up the crowd and getting them involved in what was an anything-but-lackluster performance. The Speaks let the crowd get down and dirty to help “pop a song’s cherry,” and played “Turn It Around” for the first time ever live. Kind-of ballady, with a slow beginning and a powerful, hard finish, the song’s performance was everything that a first time should be. Along with the pleasure of watching this absolutely talented fivesome bring life onto the stage, Archie Dela Cruz shredding one of two guitars was added entertainment, wylan’ out with his huge mane of hair for 99.9 percent of the performance.

Echoes Of Us, fresh off of their debut album Bathing in Public, turned the show into a CD release party, and jammed accordingly. Calling the album a “stand out indie release… filled with huge guitars, energetic drums, massive hooks and thought provoking lyrics,” the band does not disappoint their own hype. The recordings are crisp and fresh, a heavy sound with a prettyboy voice. Their live set, on the other hand, oozed with a pretentious “I’m a badass” air that echoed of once-upon-a-time band Die Trying.

After a decent number of hours of pre-gaming at the downstairs bar, the last spot of the evening went to headliners Humanzee. A Waldorf-based band in the heart of their 6-month union, the main focus of the Humanzee boys is “trying to build a scene,” and they certainly are getting a fair amount of play from the Baltimore area. With some of their songs sounding strangely like Ontario’s homegrown Finger Eleven, these guys are more influenced by the legendary sounds of Tool, the Deftones, “and who doesn’t like Nirvana?” Lead vocalist Steve Heisler has a post-grunge, pseudo-nineties inflection to his powerful voice, with Kevin Taylor and Norman Davis backing him up and manning the guitars. Joey Dorsey on bass and Jeremiah Hollisey on the drums complete the lineup. A voice rang out from the crowd: “And the drunkest of the night award goes to…” so with that, the boys took the stage, and ripped into their set. When the music faded, the audience demanded another song, but showing true, potential rockstar status (and catering to Fletchers’ club management), they waved the request off with a flick of the wrist.

The Speaks’ Raf was absolutely on point when he schooled the audience: “Support local music, because you never know where these guys are going to go.” The evening at Fletchers ran until the cusp of morning, and showcased a stone-solid group of talent. Despite a somewhat disappointing turn out, the show in its entirety was truly decent. Every onlooker that evening left the venue with what was quite possibly a few beers in their stomachs, quite possibly some cool new band merch, and most definitely the intent of keeping an eye on some of the evening’s succulent new talent. The house turned on the lights, and as we stepped outside, lo and behold, the rain had stopped.

There are a number of upcoming shows for each of these bands. Check them out on MySpace, and then join the groupie revolution at their live shows, as well! For Count Me In: myspace.com/countmeinmd For Spark To Inferno: myspace.com/sparktoinfernomd For The Speaks: myspace.com/thespeaks For Echoes of Us: myspace.com/echoesofus For Humanzee: myspace.com/humanzeelive

Tags: Count Me In, Downtown Baltimore, Echoes of Us, Fletchers, Humanzee, Jessica Snow, Spark to Inferno, The Speaks